Fantasia for Orchestra was written in July and August of 2020 during, and made possible by, the COVID-19 global pandemic. Normally, my schedule is completely filled with conducting engagements throughout the United States and abroad. However, in March of 2020, virtually the entire world went into lockdown in an effort to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Thousands of concerts were canceled and for many months, those of us who were accustomed to performing night after night found ourselves with some extra time on our hands. I decided to use some of this extra time to re-orchestrate my Fantasia for Solo Violin for full orchestra. The original solo violin version was written in 1993 while I was a doctoral student at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. It is published by LudwigMasters Publications. A recording of the piece appears on both the Ablaze Records disc Millennial Masters Vol. 9 and the Centaur Records release of Lawrence Golan, Fantasia.
The emotional trajectory of the piece is as follows. We begin with fear and uncertainty, and for the first half of the piece the mood is dark and depressing. Midway through, the music becomes stodgy and repetitive, giving one the impression that the drudgery will never end. However, a heroic modulation from D Minor to D Major brings hope and ushers in a glorious fanfare in the brass. All doom and gloom is wiped away and the piece concludes triumphantly. Coincidental as it may be, this emotional trajectory certainly mirrors that which we all experienced during the many months of living through the deadliest pandemic in a century.
— Lawrence Golan